THIRTEENTH CENTURY 57 
Mr. H. Saunders states that tame Swans are particularly 
mentioned in England, in a manuscript of 1272,* which I have 
not seen. The passage referred to, as I learn from Mr. Harting, 
who was Saunders’ informant, is to be found in the Wardrobe 
Accounts of Edward I. published by “The Society of 
Antiquaries.” In 1275 a table of permitted poulterers’ prices 
was issued by order of Edward I. in which the Crane was priced 
at three shillings, and the Bittern and Heron at sixpence, the 
Teal (Cercel) at sixpence, and the Curlew at threepence.t In 
the time of Edward I. oaths were sworn on the Swan, Peacock 
and Pheasant, which were looked on in the light of royal birds.t 
In 1289 we learn from the ‘“ Household Expenses of 
Richard de Swinfield’”’$ that Pheasants were to be had in 
the London market, which may have been tame bred ones ; 
in any case it is certain that they could not have been common. 
For this and other references of archeological interest, I am 
indebted to the Rev. T. 8. Cogswell. 
Heronries in Kent and Norfolk.—Turning now to another 
subject, there is good reason for believing that some of our 
British Heronries are exceedingly ancient, that is to say, that 
though the birds may have changed from one wood to another 
as trees died and fresh ones grew up, the same river valley 
has from time immemorial held its heronry, or two heronries. 
This appears to be the case in Kent, for, from an “ Inquisition” 
which Dr. N. F. Ticehurst has cited in his ‘‘ Birds of Kent,” 
(1909) we learn the undoubted fact of a heronry having 
existed at Chilham, in that county, before 1280-93. 
The same love of its old haunts is shown by the Heron 
in the valley of the Yare and other rivers of Norfolk. Here, 
* Yarrell, “B.B.,” IV., p. 327. 
t+ As quoted by Stow and Maitland from the “ Statuta de Poletria.”’ 
t In 1306 Edward I. vowed upon the Swan that he would take vengeance 
upon Robert Bruce, while in 1483 Philip, Duke of Burgundy, vowed on the 
Pheasant to go to the deliverance of Constantinople. A correspondent of 
“« Notes and Queries ” conjectures that the oath by the Peacock and that by 
the Pheasant wereone and the same (“N.& Q.,” 4th ser., III., p. 565). The 
Peacock was evidently a fairly plentiful bird in the thirteenth century. 
Among other entries which prove this, Mr. Cogswell draws attention to a 
passage wherein five of these birds are stated to have been sent to Lopham 
in Norfolk in 1277, just after Michaelmas, on the occasion of a visit from 
Edward I. to the Farl of Norfolk (see «A Norfolk Manor, 1086-1565,” by 
F. G. Davenport, 1906). 
§ Printed for the Camden Society, 1855 (p. 40). 
